


Back and Forth

by JohnBurtonLee



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28931571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnBurtonLee/pseuds/JohnBurtonLee
Summary: Team Ten finally gets a chance to see Shikako and Sasuke in action, leading to Ino being frustrated that Shikamaru just won't admit how far behind they are.
Relationships: Akimichi Chouji & Nara Shikamaru & Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 21
Kudos: 346
Collections: Dreaming of Sunshine Exchange 2020 C (Winter Round!), Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection





	Back and Forth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Emerald2211](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emerald2211/gifts).



> For the prompt "In which shikamaru realises shikako's strength. Could be team 7 vs team 10 spar Or team 7 saves team 10 Or even shikako saves team 10. Main is team 10's pov. Thanks."

Ino felt like lodging a complaint with the universe. She had gotten her wake up call about being a better shinobi back when the Sound Four came calling. Shika had gotten his when he lost his arm. Getting attacked by an S ranked nukenin on a B ranked package delivery seemed like overkill, even if the universe decided that they needed a reminder. 

The thing was, they weren't weak. They were the most badass chunin team in Konoha! That didn't help much against the mad bomber that seemed to have some sort of grudge against puppets. Ino didn't even know if they were carrying puppets or not! They were just given a bunch of storage scrolls and were told to deliver them. 

And they had been training harder! It's why they weren't a mass of blood stains on the ground. Really, the universe could be so inconsiderate. (And hopefully it wasn't Choji's turn to suffer for their complacency.) 

Ino didn't want to admit to herself that their training didn't have much to do with the fact that they were still alive. The sadistic bastard wanted them to suffer. Well, actually from what she remembered from the bingo books, he wanted them to appreciate his "art" a bit before he killed them, which is why they were pinned against the foot of a cliff unable to do much of anything. 

The big problem was that stupid flying thing Deidara was riding on. The three of them had a good mix of ranged attacks, mostly short to mid-range types because that's where most ninja combat occurred, but they hadn't neglected to build up some long range attacks. Worst comes to worst, Choji had remarkable distance on throwing rocks with super strength. Unfortunately, what was effective at long range against someone mostly at the same level as you didn't necessarily work against someone flying above you. It wasn't that they couldn't reach his height, it was that gravity bled so much speed off their attacks that they were trivial to dodge. 

Deidara saw through all of their attempts at misdirection when trying to flee. She wasn't even sure he even noticed the genjutsu she tried. While they could all move through the earth, that was a monumentally bad idea when facing against someone trained by the Iwa Explosive Corps. Their explosions were based on Earth chakra and had a nasty tendency to liquify people underground. The only Chameleons Ino thought could help here she didn't have the chakra to summon. With the angle the sun was at, Deidara's shadow was practically in the next country, so most of Shikamaru's clan techniques were out. And despite what it looked like, Choji's butterfly mode didn't actually let him fly. 

Yeah, so much for not needing Asuma along to "babysit" for this mission. Some air chakra attacks would probably work pretty well against someone in the sky. 

Ino was about at the point where she was desperate enough to try some of the Yamanaka techniques. Oh, she had gotten over the trauma from the Sasuke retrieval mission; the problem was that taking away control from someone directly above you riding on a bird made of explosive clay would make the bird fall. Sure it wouldn't land right on top of them, probably, but it was _made of explosives_. 

"Super beam cannon!" 

Ino had never been more grateful to hear Shikako's voice. Part of her had started to wonder what good a bluff technique would be, but before that thought was even halfway finished, the sky lit up with lightning. She blinked involuntarily at the bright light and when she opened her eyes again, she saw that Sasuke had somehow wound up on top of the clay bird in that blink. 

Now, Ino had largely outgrown the belief that Sasuke was a romantic hero that would come to save the day if it was necessary, but the part of her that hadn't swooned a little in the back of her head. 

She was a bit less enthused by the fact that the clay bird started falling. After a furious exchange of blows, Sasuke leapt off the bird and landed on the back of a giant hawk. Shikamaru took the distraction to signal them to climb the cliff, probably because, like Ino, he could sense Shikako at the top. They were barely a fifth of the way up when Deidara and his bird crashed maybe a hundred meters away and a giant electrical discharge erupted from the crash site. 

"It's too much to hope that that killed him, right?" Choji said. 

"Not too likely," Shikako's voice came from above them. "We need to get out of here. Akatsuki works in pairs." 

Shikamaru let out a trademark "Troublesome" though this time Ino rather agreed with that assessment. If anything, it could probably use some swearing to punch it up a bit. By the time they made it to the top of the cliff, Sasuke had flown over and joined them. 

"What the hell are you guys carrying? I saw two more guys in Akatsuki cloaks near where Deidara landed," Sasuke said as he jumped off his hawk. 

"Just supplies," Ino blurted out. 

This time it was Shikako who said, "Troublesome." 

"If we get killed over ordinary supplies, I'm going to be slightly annoyed," Choji said. 

"Best case, one of those is a clone. Slightly worse case, they're working as a trio. Worst case: there are two pairs out there," Shikako said, almost to herself. 

"There should be a way station-" Ino shook her head. "No, that would just give them a target to attack." It would be an option for something less threatening than S class missing nin, but the way station only had a couple of chunin there. It was really just for passing messages and minor resupply; if it was closer to Konoha it would have had a single genin manning it. 

"It's either go back to Konoha or go forward to the front," Shikamaru said. 

"Konoha," Shikako said decisively. "Deidara's partner uses poison and I don't think anyone other than Tsunade, Shizune or maybe Sakura could create an antidote." That caused Shika to click his teeth in annoyance. 

Ino thought about making a comment about how Shikako must have memorized the bingo books before she realized that she probably had. Instead she said, "That's a lot of faith in Sakura." 

Shikako gave Ino a funny look. "Sakura's awesome. It's just that sometimes she forgets." 

"Can we get out of here?" Shikamaru complained. 

"You three go ahead," Sasuke said. "Kako and I will lay down some false trails and follow." 

Shikamaru looked like he wanted to object, but bit it back and they headed out. 

"Kako and Sasuke are stronger than I thought," Choji said. 

Ino couldn't see Shikamaru's face, but his voice had a scowl in it. "They had a type advantage. Lightning trumps earth." 

"Kako's earth natured, just like you, Shika," Ino said. Shikamaru didn't respond, but she was sure he heard her. 

"I wonder if Kako had the Super Beam Cannon when she fought Gaara and just didn't use it," Choji said. 

Ino personally doubted it. That fight had been all about the different ways Kako could have killed the now Kazekage if she really felt like it. The crazy part? It was some twisted declaration of friendship. It was basically saying that even if Gaara went crazy, Shikako could take him down if she really needed to, so it was safe to be friends and spend time around each other. It made her feel stupid for ever thinking that Kako wouldn't fit in on a team with Naruto. Considering that Team Seven had also beaten the crap out of Haku before declaring him to be their friend, it also made Ino regret ever thinking that Shikako should be more outgoing. Shy Kako was so much more sane. 

Then Ino remembered that Shikako had still been in the academy when she started playing with explosions and decided that Kako had just been better about hiding her insanity when she was younger. 

On third thought, Ino considered what her classmates had been like when she was younger and decided that she had just been really bad at deciding what was sane or insane when she had been in school. She was kind of glad that she and Sakura made up so quickly back then or Shikako's friendship repairing scheme might have involved explosives. What's worse, judging by Gaara and Haku, it might have worked. 

Actually, if Shikako's first mission out of the village had been Haku, and she learned defeat equals friendship from that, it actually made twisted sense that shy, somewhat lonely Kako would be so obsessed with getting stronger. 

Ino's trip down memory lane and horrible implications street was interrupted by Shikamaru skidding to a halt. "Now that's just not fair," he complained. 

Spiders. Spiders of every shape, size and color were arrayed in front of them. Ino was pretty sure most of those species weren't actually venomous, but that might only apply to when they were regular sized and not the size of dogs. Oh, hey, that one was horse sized. 

She flexed her chakra. "Kai." Nope, not a genjutsu, because that's not how her day was going. On the plus side chameleons ate spiders, but Ino was sure she didn't have enough chakra to summon enough to help here. 

Ino noticed Sasuke and Shikako had caught up to them by the fact that the latter suddenly burst out into cackles. 

"Oh, you bastards," Sasuke said. "You just gave her the perfect excuse to try out _that seal_." 

The spiders froze in creepy unison, all of those eyes suddenly focused on Shikako. One of the really big ones chittered and they started unsummoning themselves en masse. 

Shikako sighed. "I really need to do something to fix my reputation." 

"It doesn't seem broken to me," said Choji. 

* * *

When they finally got back to the tower, the ninja at the desk took one look at their group and waved them past. As they stood in front of the Hokage's door, Ino hissed, "Just what kind of mission were you on that we were sent directly to the Hokage?" 

Shikako blinked at her. "A while ago she decided it would save everyone time if we were debriefed by her personally after every mission." 

Choji paused mid chip. "What?" 

"It's a weird superstition, but I guess gamblers and war veterans tend to develop those, and Tsunade is both." 

Tsunade's secretary muttered "Superstition my ass." 

"Send the problem children in," called Tsunade. 

The group shuffled in. Well, Sasuke strode confidently, but the rest of them shuffled. "One escort mission completed without complications," Shikako brazenly lied. Tsunade cleared her throat and tilted her head towards Ino and her team. 

Sasuke sighed. "She's technically correct. The complications started after our mission was over; on our way back we heard a large number of explosions that, for once, Kako didn't cause." 

"Not that you didn't try to blame me anyway." 

Shikamaru took a moment to glare at Sasuke before starting on the report for their aborted mission. Ino didn't know why Shikamaru took offense to that. If Ino heard a large number of explosions when she was with Shikako her first thought would be "What did you do?" as well. Sasuke did chime in when Shika got to the point where the remnants of Team Seven joined the fight. 

"When did you finish that bluff technique?" Tsunade asked after Sasuke mentioned the Super Beam Cannon. 

Shikako shuffled in place. "I didn't?" 

"Then why did you use it?" Choju blurted out. 

Their survival instincts deficient friend shrugged. "Right now all it is is a pretty light show, but it's still a lot of lightning chakra, which would disable the explosive clay. First priority was to keep him from bombing you guys when he realized that he had more company." 

Ino sighed. "Well, I can't fault your priorities." Next to her, Shikamaru scowled, but didn't say anything. 

Sasuke continued his report, which let Ino know that the big electrical discharge was actually one of Shikako's tags and not one of Sasuke's jutsus. He used a tag rather than one of his own jutsus to keep the lightning flowing while Deidara fell, but without needing to follow him down himself. 

After all that, Tsunade sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Looking directly at Shikako she said "Congratulations, you're now officially more scary than a swarm of sentient giant spiders." 

Sasuke sighed. "I had been expecting that it was a trick and that most of them ran to disguise the fact that some ambush hunters had stayed behind. Nope, she scared them all off." 

"But I don't look scary?" Shikako tried. 

"We grew up with you. We can't really judge," Ino said, which was true. Despite that, intellectually she knew there was a reason so many girls in the academy now imitated Shikako's hair style and it wasn't because of fashion in the traditional meaning of the word. Ino had heard Shino call it defensive mimicry. He found it to be a fascinating example of humans imitating insect evolutionary trends. 

Shikako shrugged. "Well, there's a reason why Okou is only an A rank threat." 

" _Only_ an A rank threat?" Ino burst out. 

"Yeah, spiders are kind of vulnerable to fire. There's a reason why spider summoners like Okou usually stay out of Fire Country. At least I assume it was Okou. I don't know of any other spider summoners that can summon that many." 

And that was typical Shikako, missing the point as usual (and demonstrating that she memorized the bingo books again). Then again, she and Sasuke stopped Deidara hard while the bastard felt he could play with Ino and her team. Maybe "only" wasn't an unreasonable modifier for Shikako. 

"That makes me a bit nervous about what kind of seal Sasuke was worried about," Choji said. 

"Get out of here before I'm forced to find out," Tsunade barked. 

There was less shuffling as they hurried out of Tsunade's office. 

"Ichiraku's?" Sasuke asked as if this was a normal occurrence. 

Shikako looked expectantly at Ino and her team. "Were you talking to us?" asked Choji. 

"Well, Sasuke and I almost always go to Ichiraku's after a mission, so he wouldn't have needed to ask me." 

"The dobe started the tradition," Sasuke said as if admitting that he followed Naruto's lead on anything was physically painful. Knowing Sasuke, it probably was. 

"Sorry, we have our own post mission team tradition," Shikamaru said. 

"Oh, the self-flagellation?" Shikako said. 

"Self-flagellation?" Shikamaru repeated. He turned to glare at Ino. "Ino…." 

Ino rolled her eyes. "Fine. 'After action brainstorming session.'" 

Sasuke walked off, obviously not wanting to have anything to do with it. He at least threw a quick wave, which was sadly more acknowledgment than he had ever given her while they were in the academy together. 

"Well, have fun?" Shikako said before giving her own wave and following after him. 

"Sometimes I wonder if those two are dating and just don't realize it," Ino said as she and her team headed off themselves. 

Shikamaru scoffed. "No more than you and I are." 

"Ew. I feel unclean just thinking about it." 

"That's for trying to distract me." 

"I always thought Sasuke and Naruto had more chemistry anyway," Choji said. 

Shikamaru stopped and rubbed his eyes. "I did not need that mental image." 

The thing so many people forgot was that the Akimichi were a ninja clan allied with the Yamanaka for generations. They can and would mess with your mind. Only they did so rarely and were good at it, so you could never really tell if they were doing it deliberately. Sadly, Ino didn't think that this was one of those times, but again, the Akimichi were really good at making you think just that. 

Technically, food was involved in their own post mission activity. The three of them grabbed some snacks before sitting down at an outdoor table. 

"We got our asses kicked," Choji said bluntly. 

Ino grabbed a pretzel stick for the purpose of being able to break it into pieces in her hands. "He might have been an unfashionable crazy person, but he still fought smart." She snapped off a piece of the pretzel and started to grind it between her fingertips. "I see two problems here. One, we lost against the art school reject. Two, we lost against Team Seven." 

"Aren't those the same thing?" Choji asked. 

"No!" Ino jabbed the remaining bits of her pretzel stick in Choji's direction. "Shika and I may have had some… training setbacks, but we still had all three of us together. Maybe if Sasuke took down that bastard with some Sharingan bullshit we could say it was just-" 

"Ino," Shikamaru interrupted. "Sasuke's lightning natured. We went over this." 

"And that big lightning thingy at the end was one of Shikako's tags," Choji pointed out. Ino was grateful that he made the point instead of her. But actually, she wasn't sure if he was agreeing or disagreeing with her. 

"Did either of you notice Sasuke or Shikako before they attacked?" Ino demanded. "No? Then they beat us that way." 

Shikamaru just clicked his tongue in response while Choji looked thoughtful before saying, "I didn't sense the spiders either before we ran right into them. That's going to give me nightmares later." 

There was a moment of silence where they contemplated the fact that they were ambushed by spiders the size of ponies. They had no clue they were there until the spiders were right on top of them. Ino decided that she was joining Choji in having nightmares. 

"Situational awareness drills," Shikamaru eventually spat out. 

"Is this going to be like when Shikako was walking around with marker lines on her face?" Choji asked. 

"Maybe Asuma has something less embarrassing we can try," Ino said. "I don't remember annoying him much lately." 

"What about Deidara?" Choji asked. 

Shikamaru sighed. "What about him? It was a bad matchup." 

Ino resisted the urge to just hit him in the face. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize we could say 'time out, bad matchup' when we're on a mission." He could be so thoroughly irrational when it came to acknowledging that Shikako could take care of herself, and admitting that they had something to work on here would mean admitting that Shikako was actually more fit to be in the field than he was. 

"Actually, what was the spider guy even doing there?" asked Choji, probably trying to defuse the argument. 

"Running away," Shikamaru said. 

"Huh?" 

"Summons don't dismiss themselves that easily if they have orders," Shikamaru explained. "Okou was probably in the area when he heard our fight and created a swarm as a distraction while he ran away… or maybe completed some other objective that he was in the area for and just needed a few more minutes to finish." 

That made sense, but Ino was skeptical about it since it also fit into the narrative that Shikako wasn't really that scary. She sighed. "Well, since we didn't even see Okou, I guess that's as good a theory as anything. Can we at least agree that we should start carrying around more explosive tags as spider repellent?" 

Shikamaru sighed, but at least didn't protest. Honestly, it wasn't like getting more explosive tags was hard when you were friends with Shikako. Some people folded paper cranes when they wanted to keep their hands busy. Shikako made explosive tags. It wasn't quite as bad as randomly finding them under seat cushions in the Nara home but it was close. 

"What about Deidara?" Choji asked. 

"We can get some electrical discharge tags from Kako," Shika said reluctantly as if it was a huge concession rather than bloody common sense. Ino was about to say something about that attitude, but before she could he continued "And Ino could have reverse summoned herself away." 

"What?! I wasn't going to leave you two!" 

Shika sighed again. "I'll see if dad will let me sign the blackbird or bat contract. With two of us capable of reverse summoning we should be able to get out of any bad situation." 

"I'd have the chakra to reverse summon myself with Choji only if we were fresh," Ino ground out. 

"Soldier pill?" Choji offered. "You just need to keep one handy in case of an S ranked missing nin." 

"I guess that works," Ino allowed. 

* * *

Ino's dad graciously listened to her complaints about the laziness of her teammates. 

"It's not really fair to call them lazy, Ino." 

Or not. 

"Then what should I call them? We almost died out there and it's like they- Argh! Okay, they care, but they don't want to do anything to stop it from happening next time!" 

Her father crossed his arms. "Working on situational awareness doesn't sound like not doing anything. Working on a way to escape doesn't sound like not doing anything. And a summoning contract is a commitment, Ino. Shikamaru isn't taking the easy way out here." 

Ino scowled. "It still doesn't feel like a step in the right direction. Maybe a step forward but also a step to the side." 

"Like a knight in shogi? This is Shikamaru we're talking about." 

"Cute, dad." 

"Do you know the big difference between you and Shikamaru?" 

"I'm a girl and he's a boy?" 

Inoichi rubbed his eyes with one hand. "Cute, Ino." 

"Fine. I'm more competitive than Shikamaru." 

Ino's dad stared at her incredulously for a moment longer than was comfortable. "Have you never played shogi with him?" 

"Okay, we're competitive about different things." 

"Which isn't that big of a difference." 

Ino tapped her fingers on the kitchen table and wished that he would just tell her, but that wasn't how her dad worked. What else? Her dad already argued against laziness. Only child versus eldest brother? You'd think that would make Shikamaru more responsible, not less. "I don't know." 

Her dad seemed to think that she at least considered it long enough because he explained, "The two of you are at that weird age where you're not quite adults. You want to get there sooner and Shikamaru wants to put it off. Part of growing up for ninja is taking responsibility for protecting more, which means needing to be stronger. And I'm proud that you want that responsibility." Ino wasn't so sure that was her motivation, and it would be like her father to guilt her into being a better person by praising traits she hasn't quite achieved yet. "Shikamaru just needs a little push into deciding that he wants to protect more than just his family and team." 

Ino rolled her eyes. "Like that's going to happen." 

* * *

Asuma tapped the shogi piece. "Shikamaru, who do you think is the king?" 

**Author's Note:**

> What I was going for was a sense of Shikamaru realizing just how badass Shikako is now, but refusing to admit it to other people, and Ino trying to point it out just makes him double down in denial. I'm not sure how well I pulled off leaving hints for that while still not letting Ino seem like an idiot for missing them.
> 
> Shika's denial could be for a few different reasons that I hadn't decided between. One, Shikamaru saw what getting to Shikako's strength cost her and just does not want to pay the price, in which case the King discussion is a death flag for Asuma (oops). Two, Shikamaru just doesn't want to admit that he was wrong about trying to sideline Shikako, in which case the King discussion can serve as an excuse for him to change things up (no death flag, yay!). Three, Shikamaru doesn't want to admit he doesn't know how to close the gap in their strength levels, in which case the King discussion would just be motivation to get as strong as he can even if it's not as strong as his sister (also no death flag). There's also the chance that Inoichi was right and Shikamaru just wants him and his sister to stay children for a while longer, which would also make the king talk motivation without the death flag.


End file.
